If you're having a hard time getting anyone at a company to respond to your service issue, or worse, everyone responds but no one's willing to actually work on it or resolve it, it's time to take your complaint to the top. Most people at their wits end find that a well-worded and actionable email to a corporate executive gets quick and effective results, and the folks over at The Consumerist have a great guide to figuring out those executive email addresses if Google fails you.

When we discussed the worst companies for customer service, we made a point to include executive customer service info if we had it available. If you can't find it though, The Consumerist suggests doing your homework and learning the names of everyone at the top tier of the company you have a complaint with—sometimes there's an executive specifically responsible for your type of complaint. Then it's just a matter of figuring out the company's naming conventions and domain suffix, and firing away.

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They also suggest making sure you send your note from a named email address with an appropriate reply-to, so it stands a lower chance of being completely ignored. Remember, CEOs often have assistants handling their mail for them, and while many may respond directly, it's more likely that a well-written and professional note from a real person will get forwarded to the appropriate VP or Director for action. Check out the whole guide below, and give it a try the next time a company's 800 number makes you want to bang your head against the wall.